Tens of thousands of people protested in Palma de Mallorca on Sunday under the slogan “Mallorca at breaking point,” in one of the island’s largest recent anti-tourism demonstrations.
Organisers claimed up to 70,000 attendees, while police estimated around 25,000. Marchers highlighted overtourism’s effects on housing, with over 100,000 properties used for tourist accommodation, rising costs, and declining quality of life.
The mostly peaceful march turned tense at the end, leading to police baton charges and rubber bullets, with eight people treated for injuries.
The demonstration, held under the slogan “Mallorca al límit” (Mallorca on the Edge), marked a major turning point for the island’s local activist movement, which had previously maintained a peaceful, good-natured tone. The scale of the march reflected widespread community frustration, though official figures varied significantly wbeteen the official 25,000 and the organisers claim of 70,000.
The day proceeded peacefully until the final stages of the march near Palma’s Parc de la Mar:The Spark: Tensions erupted at a police crowd control point when a small group of protesters threw plastic bottles, sticks, and stones at officers. Riot police deployed batons and fired rubber bullets as sound-only warning shots to disperse the crowd. This is the first recorded instance of police opening fire at anti-tourism protesters in a European holiday resort. Paramedics treated eight injured individuals, two of whom were hospitalised with minor injuries. One man was arrested on public order offences.
Local groups, coordinated by the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life), are demanding a complete overhaul of the island’s economic model. Their primary complaints include a housing crunch with skyrocketing rental rates and properties sitting empty due to an influx of foreign buyers and holiday lets, resource strain in infrastructure saturation, traffic gridlocks, excessive waste, and damage to natural spaces, inadequate measures and activists argue that current government initiatives, such as capping hotel capacity and restricting new apartment rentals, fail to curb the issue. They are calling for an absolute reduction in overall visitor arrivals.
The protest reflects growing calls for reduced visitor numbers on an island that welcomed more than 13 million tourists in 2025.
